


Summer in February

by Code16



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: AU, AU Queerness, Activism, Alternate Universe - BDSM, BDSM, F/F, F/M, Multi, Other, Sub Edward, Worldbuilding, dom Bella, nonsexual bdsm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-08 01:57:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4286265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Code16/pseuds/Code16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dom and sub - the foundation of society, the most basic story. The world though, tends to be much more complex than society likes to admit. In a college, in a town, some people live in their world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer in February

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Big Gay Directedverse Fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/252539) by [Skull4601 (shiplizard)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiplizard/pseuds/Skull4601). 



> So our world, with all its normativity and stereotypes and etc also has quite an enormous amount of difference and dynamicness and work and tangledness and conflict and etc, and among it all is where people live. I love the idea of looking at all that in a D/s world, I love works that have done this, and I wanted to do a bit of it myself. 
> 
> Also, I have long had thoughts for a Twilight D/s AU.
> 
> So.
> 
> I've had this one chapter written for a while and now I decided I wanted to go ahead and post it. I might never write more. I might write out of order. And so on. But meanwhile, I wanted to have this existing.

[ **Edward POV** ]

 

“A Contract is a Contract. We don’t need new legal concepts for same-role couples, we’ve already got one.” Ness, for reasons known only to her, had climbed up on the low wall that fenced the flower beds off from the sidewalk and was pacing back and forth on it, thumbs tucked into her white Neutral pride suspenders, and arguing at the occupants of a booth that was approximately half the lawn away. “Tradition! You know what tradition is?  Tradition is when the sub’s dom-parent-or-guardian signed the thing. Because, oh right, they were the ones with actual legal standing. What a great tradition. I mean, come on. They changed it years ago to have the signatures side by side instead of one over the other. Would it be so hard to change the labels on them?”

“Um, Ness,” I pointed out. “I agree with you. Like, all the way. I read that book on Contract history, even.” And had promptly hidden it in the very back of my extensive bookshelf. It had been, frankly, a terrifying read. Ness signed and leaned back against a tree.

“I know. I just want to get it all out. And there’s too much of a crowd around the table – if I said it there, no one at all would hear.” She lightly snapped one of the suspenders. “Who the hell let the ‘separate can totally be equal’ crew into Forks U Pridegrounds anyway? And _why_?” I shrugged.

“Well, _they’re_ here, aren’t they?” I looked at the other side of the lawn, where a trio with their theologically admonishing signs stood behind their barrier, surrounded by another crowd. “Freedom of speech and all.” Ness looked about ready to embark on another usage of said freedom herself, when suddenly she straightened and took on an entirely different tone.

“Hey, look, it’s that top you won’t shut up about!”

“Er, what?”

“You know, the one from your… something or other science class. The one I told you you should go ahead and just ask out already. Screw the old norms and all.”

“Yeah, like forty times. Ness, I know who Bella is, where do you see her?” She grinned at me and jumped down.

“Sorry, can’t talk now. I have to go look at this one thing you would find very boring.” And she was gone. I stood there and considered. I could try to follow Ness. I could just enjoy the Pridegrounds. I could stand right here.

Or I could stop being a coward and actually try talking to Bella outside of class. Feeling very self-conscious, I climbed up where Ness had been and attempted to recreate her gaze direction. And yes, there was Bella, manning one of the free condoms tables. _Screw the old norms. Right._ Climbing back down with great relief, I headed in her direction.

I spent the short trip wondering what capacity Bella was here in. She was interested in subs, I was pretty sure. Or at least I remembered seeing a key hanging from her belt last semester, before winter holidays.  So, ally then. But then again, it could have been a cover. Or she could have had a sudden realization. Or she could be bi, for that matter. Or a closeted switch. Or…

I reached the table before I could finish my thoughts. Bella, to my dismay, wasn’t there, but it only took noticing her bag propped up against the chair to be reassured that this was temporary. Bella’s table watching partner looked up only briefly from the book she was engrossed in. This close, I recognized her as Lauren. She wasn’t wearing any pride gear, but at her side, a lock dangled from her belt. The table itself held only the condom containers and what looked like an upside-down pin. On Bella’s side of the table. I had to briefly (but successfully) resist temptation before being distracted by the return of said pin’s presumed owner herself, and two subs she was clearly in the middle of a conversation with.

“You don’t have to go near the protestors.” The two subs had matching collars with matching keys hanging from them. And were holding hands. Bella, as far as I could see, had nothing except her usual belt. Which I determinedly _didn’t_ look at. “You don’t have to walk around. You can find yourselves a bench in the middle and just look. You don’t have to stay at all if you don’t want to anymore. This is supposed to be a celebration, not a trial by ordeal. At worst, there’ll be another one next year.” The couple seemed to take this information as a relief, because they thanked Bella and departed a direction I knew to hold benches. Bella turned around to see them go and immediately spotted me.

“Oh, Edward, hello!”

“Er, hi!”

I tried to think of a good conversation opening. Because “excuse me, what is the range of people you like to take to bed” was right out… I ended up gesturing back at the couple.

“Um, from your floor?”

“What? Oh, no. They work at Read All Over - it’s my favorite bookstore in town. Well, Angela works at the bookstore. Bethany works in the cafe next door, she only spends all her breaks in the bookstore. I, ah, live with my Dad, actually. Saving money and all.”

“Me too. Er, well, with my family. The rising cost of university is going to undermine the future of this country.” Wait, had I said that outloud? Great, now I sounded like Ness, and ridiculous. But Bella only sighed and shook her head, not at me.

“Yeah”. She looked over the lawn towards the still cordoned off protestors. “As if the country didn’t have enough problems.” A moment later, she glanced down at the table and grimaced in a much less somber way. “Speaking of problems!” The upside-down pin, it seemed, did indeed belong to her. “That’s about the third time today.” She picked it up and pinned it empathetically to her shirt, and I finally got a look at it. The outline of a key, filled in with white. At some point in my life, I might even not have recognized it, but lately Ness had gotten really into some secrets blog and enlisted me to help her look up all the pride symbols in case they showed up as backgrounds. Sex-Neutral. Dominant everywhere else, Neutral in the bedroom. _Oh._

“They, um, don’t usually do that, I think? Fall off I mean.” My eloquence wasn’t getting any better, though at least I had the instantaneous presence of mind to steer clear of anything with the word ‘broken’”.  Bella sighed.

“Catch is twisted or something. I didn’t see until this morning. I thought I might get something out here, but no one has anything. Not even the vendors.” Well, hadn’t I heard that speech a few times.

“Yeah, Ness said barely anyone has anything for Neutrals.”

“Ness?” Oh, right, it wasn’t actually true that everyone here knew each other.

“Friend of mine. She’s pre-law and she did APs, so, no science classes. You, um, might have seen her around though. Redhead, always wears suspenders…”

“Ah - was she by any chance declaiming poetry on an orange crate outside Northwest Hall Friday?” Never mind – everyone might not know everyone, but that didn’t mean it applied to Ness.

“Yeah, that’s her.”

“It was good poetry. Hers?”

“Um, no. Michelle Berton.”

“Hmm. I’ll have to ask Angela if the store has anything from her…” I was debating the merits of offering to lend her my copy of collected works when her phone interrupted with what I assumed was its notification tone. She took it out, clicked through screens, and looked away again with the kind of hurried look I usually saw on Wednesdays when she had a lit class 10 minutes after our lab ended.

“Really and seriously…” That was obviously not to me. “Lauren, could you please take over the whole table? My group decided to come in on the weekend after all and they think they may have ‘misread the instructions’”. Lauren looked up from her book enough to agree. “Edward, I’ll see you in class-“

_Last chance to seize the moment…_

_“Would you consider dating a full sub as long as he was fine with the no dynamical sex part?”_

_“You should meet my sister-in-law!”_

_No, bad, very bad…_ OK, keep it basic...

“So, um, that café next door. Would you be interested in going there? Um, with me. Like, tomorrow?” _Was that good? Was that bad? Was that at least not bad enough that she could stand to see me in class next week?_ Bella didn’t seem annoyed. Bella seemed – the opposite of annoyed.

“I’d enjoy that. I’m free after 4, would 5 be good for you?” Breathing, I reminded myself urgently, was important. Passing out right here would really make the wrong impression.

“5 is uh, good. 5 is great.” _5 is amazing._ Bella’s phone took this opportunity to beep again.

“Alright, I really have to run, before Tyler blows something up again. Good to talk to you, Edward.”

“uh, you too!” I managed to blurt out to her retreating form before she was out of earshot. _Really, really amazing._

Lauren approved my temporary use of Bella’s abandoned chair. I’d only been sitting in it for a minute or two when I caught sight of Ness making her way through to me. Meaning she’d probably just been waiting for the  ‘proceedings’ to be over. She made an inquiring face, I gave her the thumbs up, and she pumped her fist in the air before crossing the rest of the way to the table.

“Hey, glow-in-the-dark condoms! I want one!” Rifling through the jar with one hand, she gave me her own thumbs up with the other. “Anyway, come with me. There’s a new booth with pride frosted sugar cookies, and I need to convince them to make some white ones.” Which was clearly both true and code for ‘come away from this person I don’t know and tell me the whole story’. I didn’t even pretend to mind as I stood up.

“Will you buy me a cookie?”

“I’ll buy you a white cookie!”

“Deal.”

With an aside of thanks to Lauren for the brief chair loan, I followed Ness across the lawn.

_5\. Coffee shop tomorrow. Seriously._

_I wonder what kinds of cookies Bella likes…_


End file.
